This paper analyses the trade of iron ore between the most significant producer and exporter of iron ore, Australia, and the world's leading steel producers in the most dynamic East Asian region, China, Japan and Korea. One of the major concerns of th...
This paper analyses the trade of iron ore between the most significant producer and exporter of iron ore, Australia, and the world's leading steel producers in the most dynamic East Asian region, China, Japan and Korea. One of the major concerns of this study is how different levels of economic development affect the patterns of iron ore imports from Australia, as the three East Asian countries are at different stages of development distinctively. The results report that, for selected countries, the variables such as the volume of steel production, previous iron ore trade volumes, GDP per capita, real exchange rates and Australia's labor disputes affect import demand for Australia's iron ore, while relative prices do not affect any country's import demand. Cross-country comparisons of the iron ore import patterns from Australia find that Japan and Korea have relatively similar import patterns, whereas China has relatively different patterns with the other two countries.